Iraq demands return of oil money 'stolen by U.S. institutions

The Daily Mail today:

Iraq is demanding the return of $17billion (£10.5billion) in oil money it says was stolen by U.S. institutions in the wake of the 2003 invasion. In a letter sent to the UN last month the Iraqi parliament asked for help finding and recovering the money, which disappeared from the Development Fund of Iraq.The parliament's Integrity Committee called the disappearance of the money a 'financial crime' but said UN Security Council resolutions prevent Iraq from making a claim against the United States.

'All the indications are that the institutions of the United States of America committed financial corruption by stealing the money of the Iraqi people, which was allocated to develop Iraq, (and) that it was about $17 billion,' said the letter. 'Our committee decided to send this issue to you ... to look into it and restore the stolen money.'

Fortsatte forfølgelser og mord i Irak.

For fem dage siden skrev jeg et indlæg med titlen "USAs dobbelte standarder" hvor jeg omtalte, at der ugen før var omfattende - og i nogle tilfælde dødbringende - repression rettet mod prostestanter i Irak, hvilket den amerikanske regering ikke fandt grund til at kritisere, mens nabolandet Irans stærkt kritisable, men meget lignende forfølgelser, blev mødt af skarp kritik. Den irakiske regerings repressive virke synes desværre at fortsætte. Om det vil blive mødt af nogen nævneværdig kritik fra officiel hånd vil tiden vise, men indtil videre er hverken mediedækningen eller de vestlige magters kritik på et tilfredstillende endsige prisværdigt niveau.

Analyse: Irak har fortsat diktatoriske træk.

Iraq's burgeoning protest movement shows that the country may have more in common with other Arab dictatorships than the United States would care to admit [..]

A generation of Iraqis has grown up with even less control over their lives than youth elsewhere in the Arab world. They went from brutality and scarcity under Saddam Hussein to a U.S.-led liberation they never asked for. Foreign troops patrolled their streets, searched their houses at night, yelled at them in a language they didn't understand, and, as the WikiLeaked war logs show, killed without good reason. The ensuing chaos placed them at the mercy of Iraq's fearsome militias. And now, they're living under a prime minister who is undermining some of the crucial checks and balances that are meant to make the Iraqi government accountable to its people [..]

There is more to democracy than elections, and, in some crucial ways, Iraq is becoming more autocratic. Iraq's Supreme Court ruled in January that several independent institutions -- including the central bank, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), and human rights and anti-corruption committees -- should be under the control of the government's council of ministers led by Maliki. The prime minister's critics have accused him of pressuring the court to issue the ruling. The bloc led by Ayad Allawi, the former interim prime minister and Maliki's rival, issued a statement condemning the verdict as "a coup against democracy."

This decision will have a significant and pernicious effect on Iraq's nascent democratic system. Qassim Aboudi, an Iraqi judge and IHEC official, condemned the Supreme Court's decision, raising fears that future elections could see more meddling if the elections commission is not politically independent. The human rights committee is also an important check on the security services' behavior. A recent Human Rights Watch report, detailing abuses at secret prisons run by a security force close to the prime minister, is just the latest example of the sort of issue that the committee cannot be expected to investigate objectively if it is under political control.

Foreign Policy: "Up in Arms."